Inspirational Weekly Parsha Insights and anecdotes of Rabbi Schwartz and his never dull family as they acclimate and absorb into their new home in Karmiel Israel, having made Aliyah- August 2010

Karmiel

Our view of the Galile

Thursday, April 21, 2016

The First Seder- Pesach 2016/5776

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

April
21st 2016 -Volume 6, Issue 29 13th Nisan 5776

Passover/Pesach

The First Seder

OK, there’s no time to seduce you into reading this E-Mail with a
cute line, joke, story anecdote or provocative statement. It’s Erev Pesach and
there’s still cleaning that needs to done. Or as my wife says “We’re not even
close to being ready yet”. Get off that computer. You haven’t been home all
week. The kids have done enough already. The little ones are jumping off the
roof. I imagine that it’s because they probably haven’t eaten in a week, as the
fridge is pretty bare. I think my bunnies are the only ones getting any food. I
am married long enough though not to say anything though. I do want to eat this
Pesach. Shani’s married and not here to help. Yonah’s making money cleaning
other people’s houses in Jerusalem. And although my wife wanted to try to hire
him to clean our place, it seems that we can’t compete with those fancy
Rechavia Americans. And here I thought we might have earned a little protekzia
with my son. How can he give up helping his mother around the house just to
make a few shekels? What type of education is he getting? Who would leave this
poor hapless woman all alone with two little mischievous kids and people
knocking on the door all day to buy clothing and a whole house to clean for
Pesach by herself? How could my son do that? I wonder who his role model must
be…Oh…I guess I’ll be quiet now.

Anyways there’s no time here. I’m getting nasty looks. Let’s talk
Seder. The night that we have to get it all on. The night that we have to pass
on eternal messages to our family. We will bond. We will create memories,
traditions, and truly tap into the essence of our souls. It’s also the night
that we have absolutely no time to properly prepare for. We’re so busy
cleaning, cooking, and in my case touring -thank God. Yet we know we should
prepare. It has to be meaningful. We can’t be falling over our faces. We want
to have what to share, what to inspire with. This is particularly true for
those of us that live in Israel, where you don’t get a chance to make-up on a
second Seder what you missed the first night. Ok maybe it’s because we don’t
need the extra time to explain to our children, how and why America is not the
golden ‘Promised Land’ and that they are still in Exile despite the plethora of
Kosher Pizza shops, Yeshivas, synagogues and Jewish organizations and
presidential candidates that they have there. Yeahhh…those of us over here
figured that out already. But still there’s so much to pack in and it’s only
one night. So what to do?

Now many of you were fortunate enough to purchase this great brand
new book that came out this Pesach aptly titled “The Most Enjoyable Book You’ll
Ever Read About Pesach” by some Tour Guide/author in Karmiel. It’s the other
1824 of you that I’m concerned about. Yes I am keeping count J. (You can still order by the way…). So what to
do. Well in college and high school for that matter, you know that period in
life when ‘who had time to study?’ We were too busy doing far more important
things like…ummm… sleep? It was also that period when we honed our fine skills
of cramming at the last minute. Cliff notes, were our text books. Sound bites
were what we developed our essays from. We saw the movie or the TV version and
we were good to go. It’s how we passed. So with that in mind it seems that the
author of the Hagadda also understood our predicament and he gave us the long
and short of it in the first few paragraphs. A short little ‘movie’ or picture
of the Seder that was done from which all Seders can be learned from. A Seder
that the Hagadda tells us took place in the city of Bnai Brak, Israel at the
home of none other than the great Rabbi Akiva in which all the great Rabbis of
his time joined him for. Let’s take a look at that and then we’ll be ready to
go. The Hagadda goes as follows.

And even if all of us were wise, all men
of understanding, all elderly, all of us knowing the Torah, there is still a
mitzvah upon us to tell about the Exodus from Egypt. And whoever talks about it
at length is praiseworthy.

It once happened that Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi
Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaryah, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon were reclining
in Bnei Brak. They were discussing the Exodus from Egypt all that night until
their students came and said to them: "Our teachers, the time has arrived
to read the morning Shema."

An interesting story certainly. But as far as information goes,
there doesn’t seem to be much to go on or learn from here. Great Rabbis get
together and they spend all night talking OK, I got that, but what did they
say. What was it all about? What are we supposed to learn from this and how can
it make our Seder more meaningful? Is there anything more that we
can derive from here besides a pressure to find things to talk about all night
and to try to stay up as long as possible?

So now is the time to become a little Talmudic with me. Every word
of the Hagadda is precise. There is a tremendous amount of information in this
little snippet. We just have to scratch it a little and poof it will come out.
The first thing we should examine is that why was it necessary to tell us that
the Seder took place in Bnai Brak. We generally don’t have information as to
where any particular speech or teaching takes place. In addition it’s
interesting to note that the sage that lived in Bnai Brak was Rabbi Akiva. The
Head of the Sanhedrin who attended was Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariya who lived in
Lod. And yet he came to Rabbi Akiva. As well interestingly enough was that all
of these Rabbis came. Rabbi Tarfon is perhaps one of the most important
protagonists of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Eliezer Ha’Gadol and Rabbi Yehoshua were
from Jerusalem and also debated and had vociferous arguments as well that even
ended in the excommunication of Rabbi Eliezer. Yet they all joined Rabbi Akiva
in Bnai Brak. Why? Didn’t they have a Seder of their own with their own
families to attend? Even more than that it seems that their students were there
as well. Something was going on. This was a great meeting of the minds. This
was the Seder of all Seders. And its how our Seder is meant to start off.

Perhaps the Baal Hagadda wants us to note where the Seder is not
taking place. It’s not in Jerusalem. All of these sages lived at the time of
the destruction. The Jewish people were broken. There was no more Temple. There
was no more Pesach Sacrifice, for the first time since we had entered the land.
Perhaps this is even the first Seder after the destruction. The Rabbis all came
to Rabbi Akiva. Who better to come to? Who besides Rabbi Akiva who was sitting
at the edges of the burning ruins of the Temple along with his colleagues, and
who the Talmud tells us was laughing as they were crying, to come to. Who else could
see in the foxes running around in our once sacred places and see the
fulfilment of the prophecy of the destruction was going to be the harbinger of
that second prophecy that the children will return and rebuild once again. That
the streets of Jerusalem will be filled with grandparents sitting in parks and
shmozing, boys and girls playing and the sounds of brides and grooms getting
married will once again fill the cities of Judah and the suburbs of
Yerushalayim. So they came to Rabbi Akiva. All of them. They came for hope.
They came for inspiration. They came to find the redemption that can be seen in
the darkest moment of our Exile. They came to Bnai Brak and they were up all
night.

In the morning their students came in and told them that it was
time to recite the morning Shema. According to older texts of the Hagadda the
next piece and statement of the Hagadda is the response that Rabbi Eliezer Ben
Azaria had to them. It was said right there that morning after the first Seder.
It was the epiphany and the conclusion of that great seder when they were all
reclining and celebrating together.

Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaryah said: "I am
like a man of 70 years, and yet I was never able to merit to prove that one is
obligated to mention the Exodus at night, until Ben Zoma explained it thusly:
It says in the Torah, ‘In order that you shall remember the day when you came
out of the land of Egypt, all the days of your life.' ‘The days of your life'
refers to the days; ‘All the days of your life' refers to the nights." And
the Sages say: "'The days of your life' refers to this world; ‘All the
days of your life' indicates the time of the Messiah."

To clarify what this is referring to, there is a biblical
obligation to recite the Shema twice a day morning and evening. Our sages added
in the third paragraph of Shema that includes the mention of the Exodus from
Mitzrayim. It seems that third paragraph to remember the Exodus was only
recited during the daytime Shema. The rule followed the sages which were the
majority that the verse that obligates us to remember the Exodus is in
Messianic times. The truth is as long as the Temple was standing it wasn’t that
important. We had it all. We had come to our fulfilment. The Shechina
was home. The concept of finding Hashem and remembering Hashem in our darkest
moment and the night of the Exile wasn’t there. Perhaps they didn’t even know
how to relate to that world. Yet that morning, after the Seder of Rabbi Akiva
in Bnai Brak, Rabbi Eliezer walks out with a whole new weltanschauung.
We can see Hashem and the redemption even in the dark. Even in the night. We
must remember it even more so then. We can turn the night into light. That’s
why we are being put here.

The Baal Haggada tells us this story of the first Seder to teach
us that ‘Kol ha’marbeh l’sapeir bi’yitziyat Mitzrayim harey Zeh
mishubach- All who elaborate to speak about the Exodus from Egypt, He is
praise worthy. The Ba’al Shem Tov explains this phrase in his characteristic
homiletic beautiful fashion notes that the word ‘l’sapeir’ is from the word sapphire
a shining bright gem. The same one that was used to describe the vision the
Jewish people had by the revelation at Sinai of the heavenly throne. He who can
increase the brightness of the tremendous light of that redemption of Sinai.
Then Zeh is mishubach. This is praiseworthy. Which ‘Zeh’?
Which ‘This’? The zeh E-li v’anveihu- this is my God and I will glorify
him that we recited by the splitting of the Sea. The ‘this’ that our sages tell
us that all the righteous will stand in a circle on that final day and will
point to Hashem and declare Him as our God, our Redeemer, Our Father.

That first Seder took place in Bnai Brak. The word barak means
lightning. The children of lightning. That’s what we all are on Seder night. It
is that flash of lightning in the darkness of Exile. It is that bolt that tells
us that the darkness can change. The redemption is around the corner. It might
seem like the worst of times. It is that flash of lightning of the Seder that
gave our eternal nation the strength through all the horrors and persecutions
throughout the millennia. We celebrated our Seder all night during pogroms, in
basements during the inquisition, in the lagers of the Nazi death camps and
perhaps just almost as tragically in the
most distant from Judaism and our Father, assimilated homes of the Diaspora.
Pesach time is that light. That shock to our system that tells us that the
night is not permanently dark. We can reveal the light there. We can rebuild.
We can come home. No one will be left behind. Not the simple son, not the wickd
one or the one who doesn’t even know how to ask anymore. They are all by the
Seder. It’s our night. We can all recite Shema together.

My times up. I’m done. We’ve got a Seder to make. I’ve got a
lesson to give over. But hey if and god willing when Mashiach comes this Pesach
Seder if you need a tour when you get here, look me up. I should be off the
hook after the holiday.

Answer is C – I liked this question. There’s not too many of them that
demand a Talmudic background. Feel bad for those secular Israelis that may not
know this one as that all the Rabbis are pretty much the same for. But this
famous request was made by Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai who the Talmud tells us
snuck out of the old city of Jerusalem during the siege of Vespasian in the
year 70 CE to meet with him. The rebels didn’t want him to negotiate peace, but
he saw that it was a lost cause. The Talmud tells us that he arrived to Vespasian
and bowed down and called him the Caesar. The general told him that was
treasonous as the Caesar was still in Rome until a few minutes later when a messenger told him that the Caesar was killed and Vespasian was elected by the
Senate as the next Emperor of Rome. Rabbi Yochanan told him that he knew that
it must be so as Jerusalem will only fall in the hands of the head of State and
not a general. In exchange for his “good news” Vespasian granted him his
request that the city of Yavne where the Sanhedrin had escaped to be spared as
at least the Torah will be able to be continued and the tradition and
transmission passed on. That was 2000 years ago. Rome is long gone but the Torah
and its traditions and our Seder are still here. Tell that to your kids Seder night..

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About Me

Hi, thanks for popping in. I am a recent Oleh. My wife Aliza and children Shani, Yonah, Rivkah, Elka and Tully recently moved to Karmiel Israel from Seattle Washington where we used to have a little Shul in our home the West Seattle TLC (Torah Learning Center). I have been involved in Jewish educational outreach for over 15 years. Originally a Detroiter, we have been lucky enough to live in Midwood New York, Des Moines Iowa, Norfolk Virginia and Seattle. I'm just a down to earth guy who would rather talk in the front of the shul than the back so i became a Rabbi where that becomes your job. I love Jews,Stories, Israel, and chulent. Recently we opened up the Young Israel of Karmiel and look forward to greeting the many North American and Anglo Olim who will join us here in the beautiful Galil.
Please comment away I thrive on your input. Thanks!

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